“Here’s an appropriate little ‘wedgie’ in the Fear of Cycling series. The Isle of Wight County Press Online [big name for a little paper :-)] reports that the Hampshire Constabulary has cut off supplying unclaimed stolen bikes to a charity that sends bikes to Africa.

They are, get this… afraid of being sued if someone gets hurt whilst using one of them. You’d think that they were talking about barrels of toxic waste.”

Schemes such as this involving the use of what are termed “recovered bikes” – bikes picked up by he police after they have been stolen or vandalised – are quite important in encouraging cycling in the UK as well. They are often used on projects involving young people on disadvantaged estates, for example, and are a good way of showing people maintenance skills, as well as making low cost bikes available.

But what is really important about this post is that police – who do not enforce the traffic laws to give real protection to cyclists (and others) on the road – can get all “safety conscious” about something so trivial.

As John has said before: “Should we trust these people at all when it comes to safety?”